Sick
by Sanguine Ink
Summary: Takes place between Bitter Work and The Library. What happens when each member of the gaang gets sick?
1. Sokka

Chapter One: Sokka

The group was staying in a sliver of woods between the steep cliffs of some mountains and a peaceful river – the perfect site for both earthbending and waterbending. Momo had not stolen any of Sokka's food, which tonight was his favorite Earth Kingdom meat – meadow vole. Aang had not even bothered him once about the "evils of eating animals." The campfire was blissfully roaring, the food was delicious, Sokka's friends were all here and safe. Yes, tonight was perfect, except for –

_Sniff_. His stupid, snotty nose. Sokka had no clue where he would have gotten a cold from – nobody else had a cold, and they hadn't seen any other people since they visited the last town two days ago. He suspected Momo. Because clearly, it was the lemur's fault he was sick.

He sniffed for the third time in a minute. Katara snapped.

"Just blow your nose, Sokka!" she said with exasperation.

_Sniff_. "I did, just five minutes ago," said Sokka, "And now it's filled up again." Katara fumed. " Now don't interrupt!" Sokka said dramatically, picking up another leg, "This is the most perfect meadow vole ever, and I don't want to spoil the moment!" Toph snorted, while Aang shook his head at Sokka, and took another bite of his leechee nuts.

Just as Sokka was about to put his teeth into the tantalizingly juicy leg, he sneezed. All over his meadow vole. But Sokka had no time to mourn for his lost dinner because even more dangerously, he had sneezed all over Toph. Katara and Aang both stifled giggles.

"You," Toph snarled, putting her vole down gently, "Have about five seconds to tell me what I'm covered in before I bury you. One." She lifted a finger.

"Snot, snot!" Sokka said hurriedly, "I'm sorry!"

"Two." Toph lifted a second finger, the picture of eerie calm.

"I said I'm sorry!"

"Three." A third finger.

"What do I do?" asked Sokka panickedly. Aang shrugged.

"Run?" He suggested.

"Four." Sokka ditched his snotty vole and bolted for the river.

"Five." Toph abandoned her calm pretense and growled angrily to the sky. "Sokka, you're dead!" She chased after him.

Katara and Aang glanced at each other and nodded in silent agreement. Best not to get involved in the matter. Toph wouldn't _really_ hurt Sokka – they hoped.

Sokka dashed for the river, but was nowhere close when he heard Toph stomping behind him. His eyes darted about furiously, searching for any escape route. There! With a giant leap, he gripped a low-lying branch on the closest tree, intending to climb it.

"Sokka?" Sokka froze, still slightly swinging from where he dangled from the tree branch. Any sound, any slight movement, might alert the snot-covered earthbender to his presence.

Concentrating on making no sound or movement whatsoever, Sokka did not even think about the consequences of one, insignificant, instinctual nose twitch.

_Sniff_.

It was hours before Aang finally freed Sokka from the pile of rocks Toph buried him in.

**(-+-)**

**A/N: This is going to be a series of one-shots, as the disease moves through the gaang. The whole story takes place sometime between Bitter Work and The Library, as Toph is in the gaang and they haven't lost Appa yet. Hope you enjoyed it. :)**


	2. Toph

Chapter Two: Toph

Toph was not a morning person. So when she didn't appear at breakfast one morning, no one thought anything of it. Having spent most of yesterday teaching Aang earthbending, Aang, Katara, and Sokka all figured that Toph was taking a day off, much to Aang's joy. He had made great progress earthbending yesterday, and eagerly hoped for a waterbending lesson from Katara for the first time in a long while.

But even after a nice, long waterbending session, Toph had still not emerged from her earth tent.

"Maybe we should check on her," Katara said worriedly as the three ate lunch.

"She's fine," Sokka said dismissively. "She won't like anyone disturbing her."

"Well, we should still just make sure she's okay," said Katara. Aang nodded in agreement. Tentatively approaching his sifu's earth tent, he bent the door back into the ground.

"Whad knucklehead decided do bodder be?!" Toph yelled from inside, clearly suffering from a stuffed nose. "Dwinkledoes…." she growled. Aang backed away cautiously as Katara stuck her head in the tent.

"Toph, are you okay? It's already lunch."

"I'b fine, Kadara," Toph said angrily, sniffing loudly. "Can'd subbody ged sub sleep around here widoub people breaking down de door? I need by beaudy sleep!" She paused. "Nod dat I'd know if I needed id or nod." She let out a sudden, dry cough.

"Toph, are you sick?"

Toph sighed. "Yes, Sugar Queen, dat's why I'b ind quarandine! Now go away and leabe be alone."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Katara. "You must have caught Sokka's cold. You sound really sick. Come on out and I'll make you some soup."

"I don'd wand soup," Toph snapped. She collapsed the rest of her tent into the ground. "And if you aren'd going do leabe be ind quarandine, den you, Dwinkledoes," she pointed at Aang, "Are ind for anodder lesson." She stomped off towards the cliffs, and Aang groaned and followed her.

"Good, good," said Toph as Aang lifted a thick wall of rock from the ground. "Now fay id head-on like a rock and – " She forcefully pushed her own earth wall, and it shot forward, slamming into pieces when it impacted with the side of the cliff some ways away.

Aang nodded and pushed. It traveled about half the distance as Toph's before stopping.

Toph coughed before stomping the ground, collapsing Aang's wall, and raising another one in front of him. "Do id againd." She commanded.

Aang planted his feet firmly and struck the wall again. It went a bit further this time. Toph once more collapsed his wall with a stomp of her foot and raised another one for him. "Againd." She broke into a heap of coughing as he tried once more.

"Are you sure you don't want to go back?" asked Aang, "You don't sound good."

"Don'd baby be. I can dake care of byself! Do the bove againd!" she coughed.

They repeated this a few more times before Aang slammed his hand into the wall. It zoomed across the ground as fast as Toph's had and disintegrated into a million tiny dirt clods when it hit. Aang grinned, brimming with pride at his accomplishment, but his grin evaporated when he looked at his teacher. Toph, normally steady and immovable, was wobbling, threatening to tip over, still coughing huge, dry coughs.

When she finally stopped coughing, Toph admitted, "We're done for doday. Led's go back."

Aang grabbed her arm to steady her as she walked, but she shoved him away. "I don'd need your help!" Aang reluctantly let her go, and trailed behind the unbalanced, staggering earthbender back to camp.

If there were any doubts about Toph being sick, they were gone when Toph surrendered to Katara. Immediately the waterbender whipped up some soup, and force-fed it to a grudgingly accepting Toph. Momo scurried onto Toph's lap, his enormous green eyes begging for soup as cutely as possible, despite the fact that looking cute didn't work on Toph for obvious reasons.

"No, Momo!" Katara scolded, shooing the lemur away from Toph's bowl. The lemur chattered indignantly and scurried away.

"I don'd wand soup," Toph complained. "I'b nod hungry."

Katara paid her no heed, and held out another spoonful of soup.

"Ad leasd led be feed byself." Toph complained further.

Katara sighed, and stopped her spoonfeeding. "I know you don't like it when other people help you, that you like to 'pull your own weight.' But it doesn't mean you're weak, Toph. Everybody needs help sometimes, and we _want_ to help you." She handed the warm bowl to Toph. "Drink the rest of this. I'll go help the boys brush Appa, okay?" Toph nodded. Katara disappeared off into the forest. Toph paused to consider the bowl. Maybe Sugar Queen was right. Maybe it was easier if everybody helped pull each other's weight.

Then she beckoned to the lemur.

"Cobe here, Bobo," she said, "I can'd sdand dis soup. You ead id." Momo eagerly lapped up the soup until the bowl was dry. Toph stretched and moaned quietly, satisfied with Momo's appetite, and curled under a blanket. Momo snuggled next to her contentedly. And that's how Katara, Sokka, and Aang found them when they returned.

**(-+-)**

**A/N: Toph with a cold is hilarious, and I love it when Momo interacts with anyone. Anyway, if anyone has advice on how to write dialogue for someone with a cold, I'd love to hear it. If it's too hard to read, I just basically substituted every t with a d and every m with a b. I had a bad cold when I wrote this one, so that's what I sounded like.  
Two more chapters coming, and they're much longer.**


	3. Katara

Chapter Three: Katara

The group awoke to find Katara already hard at work, stirring leftover soup for breakfast. Purple bags swelled under her half-closed eyes as she twisted her wrist around over the pot, stirring its contents listlessly.

"Are you okay, Katara?" asked Aang, "Why are you up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep," said Katara groggily as she bent four globs of soup into four bowls for them to eat. "I have a horrible headache."

She sneezed into her soup.

"You're sick!" Aang said worriedly. He scooted closer, but Katara waved him away.

"No, no, don't come near me; I don't want you getting sick too. I probably just caught the bug that's been going around. I'll be – " She broke off into a dry cough.

"Yep, you're sick," Toph confirmed. "You're breathing sounds a bit off. I'd spoonfeed you in return for yesterday, but I'm afraid I would miss your mouth." Katara smiled slightly in reply before bursting into a new wave of coughing.

"Here, lie down and rest," said Sokka, getting Katara's sleeping bag. She obediently laid down, closing her eyes blissfully for just a moment before sitting up again.

"But I have laundry to do today, and I have to train Aang more, and we don't have any food for dinner tonight, and – "

"Shh," Aang said. "Don't worry; we'll do all the chores today."

"What?!" exclaimed Sokka. Aang shot him a rare but dangerous glare. "Er, of course we will, little sister. You just take a break."

"Oh….okay." Katara nodded.

"Just try and sleep," Aang coaxed. The waterbender nodded a bit more and closed her eyes, sighing softly.

"All right," Aang said, turning to Sokka and Toph, "Who wants to do what?"

"I'll go find food!" Sokka instantly volunteered.

"Okay. Toph, laundry or firewood?"

Toph shuddered. "Firewood. I'm not going into the river. Katara probably wouldn't think they were clean enough anyway."

"Fair enough." They parted ways. Aang scooped up the dirty pile of clothes, cast one last look at the half-asleep Katara, and went off to the river.

He made short work of it, dunking each article in the river, blasting it with balls of water until the dirt came off, and airbending it dry. As he returned, he bent a large blob of water with him to refill the cooking pot.

Aang was the first one back. He put the clothes away and the water into the cooking pot and hurried to check on Katara. She was finally sleeping, a small trail of snot dripping from her nose. Aang smiled and wiped it off, then felt her forehead. It was much warmer then usual. Frowning, he bent a small splash of water from the cooking pot onto her forehead. Katara didn't stir.

Sokka screamed in the distance. Alarmed, Aang took off in the direction he had heard the screaming. It wasn't long before he met up with Sokka, brandishing his boomerang at the trees and babbling wildly. Nuts randomly littered the forest floor around him.

"Sokka, what happened?" Aang asked, casting his eyes around for danger.

"The coonsquirrel – it – demon – up there – nuts – everywhere!" Sokka's gaze switched from tree branch to tree branch frantically. Aang looked, and saw one of the cutest coonsquirrels he'd ever seen.

"Aw, look at the cute little coonsquirrel!" Aang exclaimed. Sokka's eyebrow twitched. "Come here, little fella." The coonsquirrel looked at him quizzically before inching closer. Aang held out his hand encouragingly.

The coonsquirrel was mere feet away when Sokka swung his boomerang at it viciously. It bolted straight up the nearest tree, squealing panickedly.

"What did you do that for!" demanded Aang.

Before Sokka could reply, a large leechee nut hit Aang directly on the top of his head. He glanced up.

What seemed like fifty angry coonsquirrels glared at them from the treetops.

"I told you – everywhere!" Sokka indicated, waving around. He poised to swing his boomerang at them.

"Sokka, don't – you'll make them angry – "

The coonsquirrels attacked, pelting them with countless nuts. Aang covered his bald head with his arms and shouted, "Run!" at Sokka. Both boys dashed back towards camp, nut projectiles bouncing off their backs with every step.

"And that's – why – animals are – okay to eat," Sokka gasped when they reached camp. "They're – evil!"

"No – they're not," said Aang, "Of course – they attacked us. You – were trying – to eat them!"

"Sokka? Aang?" Katara called softly. Both boys rushed to her side.

"Did you get food?" she said weakly.

Aang shook his head. "Not yet. Are you hungry?"

Katara nodded. Beads of sweat lined her forehead.

"We'll go right now – "

"No, don't…..don't leave me alone. Please."

"You stay here, Aang," said Sokka dejectedly, "Getting food's _my_ responsibility anyway."

"Alright, then." Sokka patted his sister's hand before walking off into the forest, boomerang clutched in his determined fist.

Aang felt Katara's forehead. "You're feverish."

Katara nodded. Aang bent some more water from the cooking pot onto her forehead.

"How are you feeling?"

"Horrible." Her voice was pitifully quiet. "My head feels like it's been sliced open with Sokka's boomerang."

"How did you sleep?"

"Not good, I guess. I had a nightmare."

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

Katara paused a moment. "You died." Her voice was so quiet he could barely hear her. "We were at the North Pole, and we found Zuko, but – he'd already killed you. And you were just there and dead and frozen and blue…."

Aang was unsure of what to say. "Well, it was just a nightmare. I'm fine, I'm right here – "

She gripped his arm so tight it was painful, and yanked his face closer to her. "Don't you die on me. Ever."

"I won't," he promised, and she released him, sighing with relief.

"Now go to sleep," he whispered to her, splashing another few drops of water on her forehead, "I'll be right here."

She nodded, and closed her eyes again. He held her hand until he was sure she had fallen asleep.

Toph emerged from the forest a couple hours later carrying a pile of firewood more than half her size. She resembled more of a pile of wood with legs than she did a girl until she dropped the wood unceremoniously next to the firepit. She plopped onto the ground on the other side of Katara, across from Aang.

"So how's Sugar Queen? She awake?"

"Shh, no," replied Aang, "But she's much better. Her fever's gone, and she's sleeping peacefully now."

"Her heart's relaxed, anyway," Toph said conversationally. "Oh, good!" she pointed her thumb at the trees behind her. "Sokka's coming."

A few moments later, Sokka staggered into the campsite, his face and arms covered with bruises and scratches. From the half-insane grin on his face, he appeared to have survived a terrific battle. In one hand, he carried a small bag. In the other, a dead coonsquirrel, bloodily skewered on his boomerang.

"I, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, have found dinner!" he said dramatically. "For Aang, some nuts and some kind of purple berries." He tossed the bag to Aang. "And for the rest of us sensible meat-eating folk, a coonsquirrel!" Aang wrinkled his nose at the poor, cute, dead coonsquirrel.

"Yes!" Toph declared. "Food!" She snatched the coonsquirrel from Sokka's hand and took a giant bite. Almost instantly, she spit it out, gagging on the fur.

"Er, Toph," Sokka said to fill the awkward silence that followed, "It's not – "

"I just figured that out, genius. So cook it!"

Sokka obliged, proceeding to not only cook the coonsquirrel, but burn it.

Katara awoke an hour later to the smell of burned dinner.

"Sokka, you meathead, you _burned_ it!" Katara shrieked shrilly. Sokka tried to explain, but Katara was not satisfied. "What do you mean, 'I couldn't tell it was done?' Was the fact that it was on _fire_ give you a hint?"

"Yep, she's back to normal." Toph declared.

"Yeah…." Aang thought dismally about the world and his destiny and the promise he'd made, and wondered if he'd ever break it.

**(-+-)**

**A/N: I love Sokka and his heroic efforts to find dinner. ^_^ And I managed to get in some Kataang, yay!**

**Oh, and I made up coonsquirrels. It's a cross between a raccoon and a squirrel.**


	4. Aang

Chapter Four: Aang

"So I was sick, Toph was sick, Katara was sick….Look's like you're next, Aang," said Sokka over dinner the next night.

"I'm not going to get sick!" Aang declared, "We airbenders have excellent immune systems!"

"Uh-huh," said Toph, "Riiiiight."

"Are you sure you don't feel sick, Aang?" Katara asked.

"Of course not," Aang proclaimed, swallowing the last bite of his berries. "I don't feel sick at all!"

(-+-)

"So, what was that about 'excellent immune systems?'" Sokka asked Aang the next day, after Katara piled yet another blanket on the airbender.

"Haven't….been sick….since I was…..six," Aang gasped, sweating and shivering.

"Leave him alone, Sokka!" Katara demanded, glaring fiercely at her brother. Sokka backed off, wary of yet another female rampage.

Katara turned her attention back to Aang. "Just rest, Aang. I think you got a worse case than the rest of us had – " Her words were punctuated by another one of his heavy, horribly dry coughs. "It sounds like something's wrong with your lungs. Take it easy today."

"I'm way behind on earthbending….."

"Too bad. You're not – "

Aang's eyes suddenly widened in alarm, and he sat up and shoved her away from him. Katara realized why a second later.

"ACHOO!" With the loudest sneeze Katara had ever heard, Aang shot straight out from under the blankets and careened straight into a large tree behind him. Sokka, who had been standing ten feet in front of Aang at the moment of the sneeze, was now fifty feet away. The blankets laid strewn between them.

Aang sniffed and sat up. Katara ran to him, but he shook his head panickedly. "Ah – "

Sokka dove behind a tree, whimpering. Katara dashed behind the tree nearest her.

"CHOO!" Aang launched thirty feet into the air, landing softly with a bit more airbending. He laid flat on the grass, still shivering, and groaned.

"You are definitely not going anywhere." Katara repiled all the blankets on him.

"I'm sorry," Aang said weakly.

"It's not your fault," Katara said, "But we need to figure out how to keep you from blasting into the air."

The ground suddenly lurched, encasing Aang from the neck down in a cocoon of earth.

"That's how," Toph said, appearing from behind a boulder. "Sheesh, Twinkletoes, I could hear you sneeze from the cliffs."

Aang wiggled helplessly. "Thanks, Toph…..I'm stuck."

"Does that happen _every_ time you sneeze?" Sokka demanded.

"At the temple…..we just had someone else…..reverse the air flow…..so we didn't….go flying….."

"No more talking," Katara declared, "Aang needs rest."

Toph shrugged and walked back off towards the cliffs. Sokka followed her, muttering something about "crazy sick airbenders."

Katara felt his forehead as he drifted to sleep. It was even hotter than it had been an hour ago, and he still wouldn't stop shivering. She sighed, frustrated. Aang was getting worse.

(-+-)

Aang had just woken up when Toph and Sokka came running back.

"What happened?" asked Katara. Sokka didn't stop to talk, but hurriedly began packing things onto Appa.

"Firebenders coming!" said Toph, earthbending Aang free from the earth cocoon. "A lot of them."

"Firebenders?!" Of course, thought Katara, of _course_ they would come now.

"And they're close!" Sokka called. Appa was only half loaded. Momo perched on Appa's head, chattering frantically. "They came by ship on the river – that's why Toph's just noticed them!"

Katara helped Aang to his feet. They could already hear the sounds of a swarm of soldiers approaching.

"They're…..too close," muttered Aang worriedly. Katara climbed onto the saddle, pulled Aang up, and forced him to lie down.

"We'll be fine, just lie down and – SOKKA!"

A fireball sprung from the forest and hit the ground next to Sokka's foot. Toph immediately launched a boulder straight at the culprit's head. She hit him, but his companions swarmed through the woods, surrounding them and cutting them off from Appa.

"What hap – " Aang started, trying to get up.

"Stay here and don't move, Aang!" Katara commanded, springing down from the saddle. "Go, Appa!" Appa took to the sky with the sweating and shivering Aang, leaving the other three to face the firebenders.

Aang pulled himself to the side of the saddle anxiously to see what was happening. Katara had summoned the soup she had been cooking from over the campfire, bending the still-boiling soup into a stream to strike at the soldiers. Toph lifted walls from the earth to block fire, then advanced the wall quickly to hit her opponents. Sokka hit soldiers with his boomerang and distracting others so the girls could get a good shot at them. A couple of firebenders attempted to blast Appa flying overhead, but his friends were quick to attack them before they attacked Aang.

But it wasn't enough. From Appa's saddle, Aang could see more soldiers marching towards their campsite and – was that Azula? It was. The fire princess, palms blazing blue, was joining in the fray.

That was it, Aang could no longer sit safely on Appa and do nothing. He found his glider, wobbly stood to unfurl it, and jumped off, despite growling protests from the bison.

Upon landing, Aang was greeted with ten fire blasts from different directions, which he dodged by lifting a circular wall of earth around him, and promptly shoved it outwards, just as Toph had taught him. Then, he lashed out, whipping blasts of air at whatever soldiers his watery eyes could see. As the throbbing in his head increased and his vision grew blurrier, Aang felt the last of his strength ebbing away. He wobbled unsteadily, growing more and more lightheaded. He was already utterly exhausted, and the fight had only barely begun.

He ducked just as a stream of blue fire passed directly over his head. Chest heaving with effort, Aang slashed his staff through the air, cutting a swathe of air straight at Azula. She jumped over it expertly, punching a series of small fireballs through the air. Aang struggled to dodge them, but in his weakened state failed to be fast enough. A fireball hit him in the back, sending him tumbling to the ground with a grunt. He rolled over onto his back, putting the fire out, and struggled to push himself back up, but collapsed, too weak to stand. His vision blurred further, and he barely recognized Azula as she stepped onto his chest triumphantly with one foot. Distantly, he heard Katara scream his name. Azula loomed over him, grinning evilly, a cerulean flame forming in her hand as she took careful aim for his head……

And suddenly, Aang felt his nose twitch. "Ah – "

At the sound, Toph jumped to Katara and Sokka's side as she opened the ground to swallow all three of them completely.

"_CHOO_!" Aang sneezed. It was the biggest sneeze of his life, and it had terrific results. Every solider within a fifty-foot radius of the sick Avatar was blasted off their feet into trees or each other. The leaves of the closest trees ripped from their branches and rained on their heads. And Azula, who had been directly over Aang, was blasted fifty feet straight into the air screaming, sounding more terrified than she ever had or ever would be again.

Toph collapsed the earth that had shielded the three from Aang's terrific sneeze just as Appa landed. Abandoning the rest of the camp, the three quickly helped Aang back onto the bison. They took off just as Azula finally crash-landed into a newly barren tree. The last thing they heard as Appa took to the sky was the normally composed fire princess wiping the snot off her face and shrieking, "AAH! AVATAR SNOT!"

(-+-)

"Well, my nose is clear now," Aang said cheerfully hours later, after a good long nap. It was late, and the group was still aboard Appa, putting as much distance between them and Azula as possible.

"You sound better," Katara said, relieved, "And your fever's going down. Just keep resting and _no bending_, and hopefully you'll be better by tomorrow."

"That's a relief," said Aang. Suddenly, he scrunched up his nose. "Ah – "

Sokka shrieked like a girl and hugged Toph. Momo buried his face with his ears.

"Just kidding, guys," Aang laughed. Katara giggled as Toph shoved Sokka away from her.

"I hope you're not allergic to anything," Sokka sighed, and they flew into the beautiful sunset laughing.

**_____**

**A/N: Aang sneezes are hilarious. This entire story was based off the idea of one of Aang's sneezes blasting Azula up into the air.**


End file.
